Everyman 3,696

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The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/3696.

In the blog of a recent Everyman (3692), there was a complaint about the number of envelope clues. I count nine there, and eleven here, some involving other techniques in addition. Maybe that means at least one  person is not a happy solver, but, as the envelope is one of the basic tools of a setter, I do not think it greatly overused – but I would not want its proportion to go any higher. Perhaps Everyman is deliberately pushing the envelope. Comments welcome, of course.

Across
1 LUKEWARM Conflict between evangelist and medium lacking conviction (8)
An envelope (‘between’) of WAR (‘conflict’) in LUKE (‘evangelist’) plus M (‘medium’).
5 OPAQUE Hard to understand old memorial with line missing (6)
A charade of O (‘old’) plus P[l]AQUE (‘memorial’; a plaque may or may not be a memorial, so this is an unannounced indication by example) minus the L (‘with line missing’).
9 SURVEYOR Inspector, very sour, perplexed (8)
An anagram (‘perplexed’) of ‘very sour’.
10 COBALT Business with type of curry lacking one element (6)
A charade of CO (company, ‘business’) plus BALT[i] (‘type of curry’) minus the I (‘lacking one’).
11 ROUT King not in for defeat (4)
A charade of R (Rex, ‘king’) plus OUT (‘not in’).
12 WET BLANKET Spoilsport being vacuous in silly tweet (3,7)
An envelope (‘in’) of BLANK (‘vacuous’) in WETET, an anagram (‘silly’) of ‘tweet’.
15 FOOLS PARADISE Plead for Oasis to reform? It’s a fond illusion (5,8)
An anagram (‘to reform’) of ‘plead for Oasis’.
18 OVERSTATEMENT Condition people to be taken in by obvious exaggeration (13)
An envelope (‘to be taken in by’) of STATE (‘condition’) plus MEN (‘people’) in OVERT (‘obvious’).
20 HORRENDOUS Dreadful distorted drone in group of singers without leader (10)
An envelope (‘in’) of RENDO, an anagram (‘distorted’) of ‘drone’ in [c]HORUS (‘group of singers’) minus its first letter (‘without leader’).
22 ERGO Hesitation? Leave for that reason (4)
A charade of ER (‘hesitation’) plus GO (‘leave’).
24 MAGGOT Larval form wise men mostly understood (6)
A charade of MAG[i] (‘wise men’) minus its last letter (‘mostly’) plus GOT (‘understood’).
25 KNAPSACK Trick involving snake put back in bag (8)
An envelope (‘involving’) of PSA, a reversal (‘put back’) of ASP (‘snake’) in KNACK (‘trick’).
26 ELDEST Part of rebel destined to be greatest in age (6)
A hidden answer (‘part of’) in ‘rebEL DESTined’.
27 DRUDGERY Tramp not having time consumed by boring toil (8)
An envelope (‘consumed by’) of [t]RUDGE (‘tramp’) minus the T (‘not having time’) in DRY (‘boring’).
Down
1 LUSTRE Passionate desire regarding glory (6)
A charade of LUST (‘passionate desire’) plus RE (‘regarding’).
2 KERFUFFLE Wake, not half upset about loud commotion (9)
A charade of ‘[wa]ke’ minus the first two letters (‘not half’) plus RFUFFLE, an envelope (‘about’) of F (Forte, musically ‘loud’) in RUFFLE (‘upset’).
3 WEEK Sequence of days inadequate for hearing (4)
A homophone (‘for hearing’) of WEAK (‘inadequate’).
4 RHODE ISLAND Run hard, followed by mutated aliens in unusual state (5,6)
A charade of R (‘run’) plus H (‘hard’) plus ODEISLAND, an envelope (‘in’) of EISLAN, an anagram (‘mutated’) of ‘aliens’ in ODD (‘unusual’ – for once not an anagrind)
6 PROPAGATED Spread support with notice outside entrance (10)
A charade of PROP (‘support’) plus AGATED, an envelope (‘outside’) of GATE (‘entrance’) in AD (‘notice’).
7 QUACK Sound made by duck that’s fake (5)
Double definition.
8 ENTITLED Eligible to be named (8)
Double definition.
13 BLADE RUNNER Film derived from book with unreal end, strangely right (5,6)
A charade of B (‘book’) plus LADERUNNE, an anagram (‘strangely’) of ‘unreal end’ plus R (‘right’), for Ridley Scott’s 1982 film, with an extended definition.
14 BOISTEROUS Vehicle skirting rocky rise, too rough (10)
An envelope (‘skirting’) of OISTERO, an anagram (‘rocky’) of ‘rise too’ in BUS (‘vehicle’).
16 INTERFACE Broadcast after nice connection between systems (9)
An anagram (‘broadcast’) of ‘after nice’.
17 BONHOMIE New hotel in prosperous period that is providing conviviality (8)
A charade of BONHOM, an envelope (‘in’) of N (‘new’) plus H (‘hotel’) in BOOM (‘prosperous period’) plus I.E. (id est, ‘that is’).
19 DONKEY Teacher vital for stupid person (6)
A charade of DON (‘teacher’) plus KEY (‘vital’).
21 RIGID Unyielding soldier breaking free (5)
An envelope (‘breaking’) of GI (American ‘soldier’) in RID (‘free’, as a verb).
23 SPUD Potato up in cupboard upstairs (4)
A hidden reversed (‘up’ in a down light) answer in ‘cupboarD UPStairs’.
completed grid

12 comments on “Everyman 3,696”

  1. I agree, PeterO, that Everyman’s style seems to be heavier on multi-part charades and envelopes and I consequently often find myself solving first and parsing second. I enjoyed this puzzle although thought the surface for WEEK was a bit weak. The surface for RHODE ISLAND, however, made up for it!

  2. Thank you Everyman and PeterO.

    I also often find myself parsing after solving multi-part charades and envelopes, but I did not guess RHODE ISLAND and it was the last in, my favourite clue. Other clues I appreciated were those for LUKEWARM, WET BLANKET, KNAPSACK, BONHOMIE, and I could go on since all Everyman’s clues have such smooth surfaces.

  3. After allowing themselves some anagrams, part-anagrams, DDs, a CD or two, a homophone, a telescopic and maybe a reverse telescopic and adding an acrostic and maybe a letter-pick clue, setters will still find that they have to write many more. If we analyse a crossword by clue-type, we will find that any puzzle has many charades. Not all of these may yield themselves to a neat A+B+C treatment . So the number of envelope clues (I call them container/content or c/c) might be – or might seem to be – on the higher side. It may be reasonable to ask that there are not more than three (or four?) components in a clue..
    —
    Is there a program where we can import clues into boxes and in boxes against each of them select clue-type from a drop-down facility and at the end we get counts of clues by clue-type. If not, can someone create such a program.

  4. Enjoyable as always from Everyman, and for the most part on the easy side, apart from 25ac which foxed me for an age. Probably because I considered for a long time every possible first letter but the correct one.

  5. @Jon_S
    Let’s say at 25ac we have
    ?N?????? (.)
    As you say, it’s a good thing to consider what can be the first letter, given the second is N. O? A? It seems you did that.
    In my experience, instead of doing that in any random manner, if, with the possible def in our mind, we do an orderly ‘letter run-through’A?B?C? when we reach K, we will get the answer quicker. The A-Z order ensures we have not missed K in our random search.

  7. A satisfying solve. Quack, week and spud were all a bit simple, but others made up. Liked Kerfuffle and Bonhomie.

    Is Rishi the same as frequents DIYCOW?

    Thanks PeterO and Everyman.

  9. Agree with both kiwi comments. I dont really understand what Rishi is saying, a bit too over analytical for me, this is just an enjoyable puzzle to entertain me after a working week. But possibly a few too many anagrams in this one Got stuck on Surveyor rather stupidly that was my LOI.
    Liked Kerfuffle

  10. This seemed a lot easier than last week’s. The prevalence of envelopes is so noticeable I nicknamed this setter Postman Pat. I usually end up having to parse after solving as there are so many permutations. Still very enjoyable clearly or I wouldn’t be here.

  11. Well these seem to be getting easier and easier 🙁 Despite being severely jet-lagged and feeling ill, I managed to bust this in about an hour.

    Enjoyed BONHOMIE but that was about it. Hoping for more of a challenge next week. I do enjoy spreading a puzzle out of several days. Happy to take it into the work week. 🙂

  12. Quite an easy one today , although I got stuck on Rhode Island and Boisterous and Knapsack for a while. Some lovely clues.

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